Thinley Choden

Thinley Choden is a 2023 Echidna Global scholar at Brookings. Her work focuses on the status of climate literacy among Bhutanese girls and women to lead toward empowered agency and skills for climate change adaptation.

Choden is a social entrepreneur and consultant. As the CEO of Centre for Sustainability Studies, a consultancy knowledge firm that she co-founded, Choden leads a portfolio of initiatives at the nexus of women, climate, youth, and entrepreneurship. She has cross-sectional strategic coalition and leadership building experiences across private and public sectors at local and international levels.

She is also the founding curator of Global Shapers Thimphu Hub. Choden serves as Bhutan country advisor for Give2Asia, a philanthropic giving platform based in the U.S. In 2008, she founded a successful nonprofit, READ Bhutan, and currently sits on the Board.

Choden is part of numerous globally competitive professional programs and fellowships such as a Draper Hills Fellow at Stanford University, the Acumen Fellowship Program, Obama Delegate Entrepreneur at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford, Vital Voices GROW and GAP Fellowship at Vital Voices Global Partnership, Leadership and Degree Fellow at the East-West Center, Asian Feminist Fellow at Ewha University, Seoul, SOCAP Fellow, and Cordes Fellow.

She holds an executive certificate in strategic decisionmaking from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Public Administration from University of Hawaii, Manoa, and a bachelor’s in economics from Beloit College, Wisconsin.